#privateering

Partly it's that I'm drawn to the relative simplicity and efficiency of them, they're easier to grasp, somehow. And sloops just look so freaking elegant, while dugouts are possibly THE original boats, ubiquitous across much of the pre-modern world.

But also I think its because I have some idea of what it actually took to build and operate those ships, as well as what they were used for.

A full-rigged ship was a massive undertaking to construct. And, if it was a warship, or in any way heavily armed, a massive undertaking to crew as well. We're talking a forest of trees, just to build one ship. And every one of those canons had to be manned by half a dozen men, who all had to be crammed aboard so tightly-packed that privacy and hygiene were basically non-existent, and contagious disease ran rampant. And who were often forcibly recruited due to lack of wiling volunteers.

Plus, the primary uses of those ships were a) carrying loot from plundered colonies, b) carrying enslaved people to work and suffer in those colonies till they died, and c) fighting imperial wars.

That's not to say that horrible shit never happened around a sloop or other smaller vessel, of course- they were used in piracy and privateering abundantly, as well as serving as naval support ships, and also sometimes in the slave trade.

But you don't have to cut down a forest to build a sloop. And you don't have to pack hundreds of dubiously-willing men into a sewage-soaked hell hole to crew one, either.

I had no idea that today was International Talk Like a Pirate day, but it's thematically appropriate since I will hopefully watch The Buccaneer (1958) tonight! Yul Brynner stars as the French pirate (and patriotic American hero?) Jean Lafitte. It's about the Battle of New Orleans and Charlton Heston was cast as Andrew Jackson (who didn't have white hair in 1814, although America's Most Unkillable President was already 47 years old).

The movie looks more than a little bit hokey, but I am desperate for War of 1812 movies and it's not like I have many alternatives.

The privateer was called the True-blooded Yankee. She was first bound to the island of Tristan d'Acunha, where she expected to meet her consort, belonging to the same owners, and who had preceded her when their directions were to cruise between the Cape and Madagascar, for certain homeward bound extra Indiamen, one or two of which she hoped would reward all the trouble and expense of the outfit.

— Frederick Marryat, Frank Mildmay (The Naval Officer)

The Privateer’s House

On this very day in 1776, the Continental Congress authorized private vessels commissioned with “Letters of Marque and Reprisal” to “make captures of British Vessels and Cargoes” and Salem’s shipowners and shipmasters responded enthusiastically: 158 privateering vessels originated from Salem during the Revolution, capturing 458 prizes and the largest prize tonnage of any single American port. It…